The Sunset Underneath the Bridge
by bookworma113
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki has been carefully shunned by The Hidden Leaf Villiage for years because of the Demon residing in his body. One day Naruto makes a discovery about himself that could not only change the course of history but his fate and the fate of many others as well. Watch as he discovers valuable allies, creates enemies, and forges a new destiny.


**The Sunset Underneath the Bridge**

 **Chapter One**

By the time Naruto Uzumaki had begun to turn six years old, he realized life wasn't meant to be fair. While most of the children his age were only beginning to learn the hard lessons in life that Naruto had come to understand what seemed to be ages ago, they were still considered to have power stronger than what he himself possessed... Nobody else had made any kind of remark about the extent his power reached, but even Naruto believed it to be a poor substitution for the chakra his classmates already possessed at such a young age. Naruto didn't blame himself, no, the other children were born of clans with rich and plentiful resources, and a powerful outlook on societal rankings. Due to their parents' fear of the unspoken rankings, they were trained from the day their chakra showed signs of potential power. No, how could he blame himself when he had no parents show him the importance of chakra control, teamwork, and the determination it takes to be a ninja.

As he grew older, the other academy students began to notice his lack of chakra control and teased him about it. Naruto didn't, at first, understand why their attitudes had become so hypocritical, even if they had more control than him, their control was weak and not based on anything strong enough to keep the chakra at bay. If anyone of the students were to lose will during either a simple spar or a full-out, raging murder fest, their chakra levels would rise beyond what their body could handle and they would too put it simply… explode. Explode into a raging ball of chakra and inner energy so strong and powerful that it could wipe out an entire battlefield. So yes they had the bare minimum amount of chakra control needed to surpass the first few basic lessons, but not nearly enough to become a Hokage or a Genin for that matter.

Naruto let them have their hypocritical fun, as he had realized the only person he needed was himself. And for the first year of Naruto's relationship between his physical body and what he had at first assumed was his mental body, he felt needed. But when his reading comprehension skills gave a boost at the age of seven, and he accidentally came across a passage on what the journal he had found in the library referred to as 'Kyuubi' he instantly knew what was inside of him. And for the first time in five years, Naruto felt truly and utterly…alone. He had come to the realization of why the other villagers despised him so. And for a second, just a single moment in Naruto's entire life he blamed the _thing_ that had been forced inside of his body when he was so very young.

It was just a second, but in that second Naruto had felt the urge to _kill,_ as he stood in the middle of the woods near his lonely home in The Hidden Leaf Village. He had suddenly out of nowhere screamed, at the top of his lungs, falling down to his knees. If anyone was near they would have heard the pure agony, and misery protruding from the very essence of his veins. Naruto felt something stir in him, he felt his body lift off of the soft coils of green grass, raising his body feet off of the ground. Red flaming chakra burst out of his tense hands, evaporating anything within its reach like a lion against his prey.

Power.

The tall oak trees' that once surrounded the clearing were gone, burnt into ash. If anyone was to be looking into the clearing, a silhouette could be seen standing in the middle of the destruction. But as the smoke cleared, and the blonde boy looked up from where his gaze was directed at the ground, in his eyes you could see something that wasn't there before. A determination to be powerful and something great was something the boy had been lacking for so long, if a villager had gazed into his deep, blue orbs when he was still a naive child, they would have seen nothing but a blank, emotionless stare that was the result of a lonely childhood and quiet despair. But now they would see nothing but determination, and power. The mental changes were seemingly infinite, but the only noticeable physical change was the color of one of his eyes.

If you looked at him now you would see what most expected to see, Naruto. But now he stood tall and proud in the chaos that surrounded him so greatly, clutching a dagger in one hand and a fistful of pure chakra in the other. His one blue eye shining with cunning and cleverness and his demonic red eye gleaming with the essence of power. Throughout the entire ordeal, the eight-year-old stood with a smirk on his face.

'Thank you, Kyuubi.' Naruto thought. 'We are now united as one.'

oOo

Iruka-sensei held his rank in society with great honor, being one of the few Jounin chosen to teach the next generation of ninja was a great feat. Only ten were chosen each year, and he had been the second-best ranking Jounin chosen. And to uphold the honor, Iruka Umino took his occupation extremely seriously. When a frail six-year-old boy arrived at his classroom door on his first day of the academy he didn't know what to think. To make matters worse for himself the boy was the spawn of the late Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Do not misunderstand, Hokage Namikaze had been respected by every Hidden Leaf Villager, including Iruka, for his entire reign as Hokage. But on the day of Namikaze's early death, he had been involved in a heated battle with the demonic nine-tailed fox, Kurama.

After the battle Hokage Namikaze had been praised as a hero for killing their bane. The Villagers held a three-day long silence in the remembrance of their hero. Although it was little-known knowledge, their Hokage had not killed the immortal being. No, he had chosen to seal the demon inside a human child, his own son, giving Naruto Uzumaki the unending powers of the nine-tailed fox. Unfortunately, a drunken rant in the middle of a busy bar had revealed that the nine-tailed-fox-demon was not dead, but in fact, sealed in a seemingly powerless boy by the name of Naruto Uzumaki. The drunken Special Jounin had received a very harsh slap on the wrist and had been demoted for revealing that certain piece of important information.

Unfortunately, the result of the information leaking into the general public had led to the young Naruto having a very lonely childhood, as most of the parents who had been alive during the mass massacre forced their children to shun the young boy.

The new Hokage had been worried that the demon in the child would take control, morphing the boy into an immortal version of the villain Orochimaru. But when the boy that had stood in that doorway all those years ago proved to be a complete idiot. The team of ANBU Hokage had sent to keep watch on the boys' progress just shook their heads and retreated.

But two years later, Naruto had changed tremendously seemingly overnight. One morning he came into school looking and acting like his original self, annoying but lovable. Then the next day he was almost unrecognizable. He strode into the classroom, five minutes early, and was unsurprised to find the entire class staring him up and down. Nothing remarkable had changed, he still had bright, spiky blonde hair. But this morning, the mess that usually sat on top of his head like a mop, was parted neatly down the left side leaving the right side fallen to the right just barely covering his right eye. Naruto wore a red piece of silk fabric that covered his entire face except for his left eye, still a shining, ocean blue but held a different emotion entirely. He wore a golden headband that tied around his head and the ribbons were so long that they fell just past Naruto's shoulders.

While Iruka had no idea why Naruto was covering his face, it did remind him of a Soujin he had met once in the park, so he didn't hate it. But the outfit, was, if possible, even less like Naruto. He wore loose fitting, but slim black jeans that fell just below the knees. The skin that wasn't covered by fabric or shoes was wrapped around with red bandages. On the upper thigh, the same red bandages held three gleaming sharp daggers. More surprisingly he wore a white t-shirt with the same seal that was on his stomach printed on it. To pair with the black jeans he wore a black hoodie. And his shoes were just plain grey combat boots. He looked more ready for a battle than Iruka had ever seen Naruto look before.

Ever since the day Naruto _changed,_ he had begun to grow stronger and better equipped at fighting. When the boy could beat out every single student in his class, Iruka put some thought into moving him to a higher class where he would be more challenged. It was not every day that a sensei skipped a student to the grade ahead, as in the life of a ninja, according to most battle-hardened ANBU out there they believed a ninja needed every second of training he could possibly strive to gather. So Iruka-sensei decided to put together a small test of sorts. A preliminary to see if the nine-year-old boy was ready to advance to the next class.

He gathered three of the finest Academy students starting their final year at the academy. He needed to be sure that Naruto could handle the pressure of graduating three years early. The rules of the preliminary were simple, one: don't die, two: beat two out of the three or three out of the three competing to move to the next grade level.

Simple. Right?

Not as easy as one might think, but Naruto had proved him wrong once again. Naruto had beaten each student Iruka had selected in less than ten minutes per fight. During each fight, Iruka stood speechless outside of the border that had been placed around their makeshift arena. Naruto showed skill and potential while fighting the three older students, that Iruka-sensei had not seen in all of the years he had been teaching at the Academy. When all of the fights had been completed, and every competitor had been won over, Naruto stood victorious in the middle of it all. After seeing the skill and wisdom the young boy had used and controlled in the battles, Iruka was almost compelled to hand the boy the Genin forehead protector and have him graduate four years earlier than what was average. Thinking back to the fight, he pondered on that very idea, even while knowing it was absurd.

 _Fighting the three students was intended to be difficult for Naruto, the Academy Students were all top of their class and had what looked to be promising futures as ninja warriors. Iruka had picked the top three students from his oldest class, on their way to be graduates the following summer._

 _In third place was Domen Takuya a slightly intimidating character. Most people in his class backed off whenever Domen intervened. He had wavy black hair that he kept loose, causing it to cover his eyes and produce freaky looking shadows. His eyes were grey and cold looking, never showing any signs of happiness or affection. He never wore anything besides a long black cloak. Dark jeans, and a grey t-shirt. His fighting technique usually surrounded the shadow jutsu, or fire jutsu. He would use shadow clones to tire the opponent out then appear from his hiding spot and use shadow jutsu to control their body movements._

 _Next was second in the class, and Domen's twin sister, Rina Takuya. She looked very much like her twin, except for the fact that she dressed in less neutral colors and kept her hair out of her face and in a messy bun on the back of her head. Her grey eyes had the same look that Domen had in his. But unlike her brothers, Rina showed a spark of determination, most likely the reason she was a place above her brother in the class rankings. She always wore a long cloak-like her brother, but along with the dark t-shirt and jeans, she wore a crimson red cloak. Her jutsu mostly focused on taijutsu, proving in some cases that she wasn't as much a genius in genjutsu or ninjutsu. She used her nimble body and unnerving speed to force her opponents' guard up. Then defeated them with a simple stunning jutsu._

 _Finally was the top ranking student in the whole of his class, Kuyo Seiichi. He had short, white hair that was cropped down the middle. Two thick strands of hair that seemed longer than the rest of the haircut. Those two strands were braided and rested on both sides of his semi-pale face. His eyes were a dull black and full of eternal hatred, they reminded him of a young boy in Naruto's current class, Uchiha Sasuke. Other than the color, of course, it was the emotion that made the two boy's so similar. Like Naruto, Kuyo held his hair back with a headband that tied around his head. It was shorter than Naruto's and not the same color, but was a slightly shimmery black-blue color. His jutsu's never stayed the same in a fight, and enemies who had fought him before were always kept on their feet. His strategy varied in technique also, he never used the same combination of jutsu twice._

 _In Naruto's battle with Domen Takuya, they battled for five minutes, mostly Domen throwing attacks and Naruto dodging blows and blocking hits. It all looked pretty one-sided and Iruka had expected Domen to earn an extremely easy win, but he had spoken too soon. As not long after, about six minutes into the battle, Naruto gained the upper hand. Once Naruto gained the power against him, Domen had no chance of winning. While Domen was distracted fighting a shadow clone that Naruto had secretly created during the match, the real Naruto snuck around the back of the boy's body and put a kunai against the other boy's neck._

" _Surrender." warned the blonde, "Before I kill you."_

 _Domen had placed his weapons on the grass below and put his arms in the air as he turned towards his sensei, saying the words that would end the current fight. "I forfeit this battle, as my opponent has taken the upper hand in his favor."_

" _Beaten with your own jutsu, and by a nine-year-old boy. How embarrassing for you Domen." mocked Kuyo._

" _Let's see you do any better teme." snapped Domen._

 _Kuyo made a noncommittal sound and leaned back up against the tree. Rina rolled her eyes at the two boys' persistent fighting and walked onto the arena toward Naruto. She studied the boy, he looked intimidating. Well, as intimidating as a nine-year-old boy could seem. He wore his bright blonde hair in a way that covered his right eye. The placement of the hair seemed to have no use other than making him look evil, as he also wore a crimson red face mask that covered every part of his face except for his left eye. His ocean blue eyes showed many different emotions. She almost had to look away from the intense gaze that the young child had placed on her with mighty strength._

 _His outfit also made him seem scarier than he most likely was. He wore a white t-shirt with a strange symbol printed on his lower abdomen. Black jeans that ended below the knees, black combat boots. A black hoodie with red flames on the lower part of the fabric. And every part of his body not protected by clothes was wrapped in red bandages. She looked for any place he might be hiding weapons but found no easily visible hiding place. That was until she spotted a seal on the red bandages wrapped around his knee. 'I'll have to keep an eye out for that.' thought Rina._

 _Just as she pulled her long, shimmering and silky black hair into a ponytail, she was quite proud of her hair. If anyone would have been bothered to ask her, she would automatically say it was her most deeply prized possession. That was part of the reason she always kept it pulled up and away from her face. If an enemy ninja, or warrior cut a piece of her beautiful hair she would go berserk. It had happened once when she was only a couple of years old, maybe around the very youthful age of six. Her brother, Domen, had a friend when he was little that always got into mischief, pulling the small and frail little girls ponytails and such. It was always simple things like tripping a little boy in the academy hallways or something not dissimilar. But one day he went too far._

 _Rina had been growing her hair out since the day she was born, and at the age of six, it was already on its way to reaching a length past her thin waist. They were still doing easy things like picking flowers and making beautiful displays to place them in before handing the finished project to their sensei. She was finishing up her display when she heard a distinct "snap" sound come from behind her back. She swung around only to find the one and only Damian, standing in front of her with a small amount of black hair in his quivering palm and a pair of open scissors in the other.. "I... it was an accident." he stuttered. It was a small amount, less than a centimeter. But Damian got a beating that day. And, well let us say Domen lost a friend due to his sisters' rage._

" _Begin." a voice she recognized as her sensei's shouted from somewhere behind her, as her back was facing the only other two people in the field._

 _As soon as the words flew out of his mouth Naruto lept into action. He created a shadow clone and used the Secret Mist Jutsu to hide himself and his chakra from his opponent. While Rina was busy battling his shadow clone, Naruto started chanting a long string of words and using a multitude of hand movements, his secret jutsu._

" _...sage, terra, nigreos, malum, tenebris." At the last word, his shadow clone disappeared and Naruto stood in front of the tired girl, his hands crossed in a way that she knew would end up killing her._

 _Before Naruto could even say a word, Rina faced her sensei and struggled to produce her words. "I forfeit." and she walked off of the arena. Leaving Kuyo to wonder where this nine-year-old got his training from. If he had beaten Rina and Domen, known as the power twins, in under ten minutes then how would he fare? Yes, he was significantly more skillful than both of his classmates, he was not sure he wanted to face the boy. On another side of the problem, Naruto's goal was to beat two of the three, and he had done that in thirteen minutes. 'If I forfeit now, I don't waste chakra. And he already passed the test. They were to be classmates already, why battle?' thought Kuyo._

" _Kuyo?" he was jerked out of his ponderings by his sensei's voice. He looked up at his sensei._

" _I forfeit," replied Kuyo, seriously._

" _What?" asked Iruka, not understanding. "You haven't even started yet."_

" _I know." he snapped before walking away, Domen and Rina following behind him._

If Naruto, a mere nine-year-old boy who was once the dead last of his class and wielded what seemed to be minimal chakra control, could scare the overall top students in the entire academy, then what was the extent of the power that he held?

In later years, as Iruka thought back on choices he could have made differently, he would never have made the choice he made that day. For when Naruto turned away from the defeated students and towards the mighty jounin with an expectant raised eyebrow, Iruka could only live up to the promise he had made. Naruto had, indeed, beaten all three of the selected students. He had no choice.

"Naruto…" Iruka hesitantly voiced aloud for the entire clearing to hear, "You, you, gosh." he struggled.

"I pass, Obviously" Naruto answered sarcastically. "Thank You Iruka-sensei." Naruto stopped and looked back as he strode calmly and quietly through the army of lush evergreen trees and wide oak. "For the overly easy fight."

As Naruto continued on his path Iruka-sensei let out a large breath he didn't know he had been holding, only to have it be grabbed and shoved right back from where it came from. "Oh, and Iruka-sensei." Naruto cheerfully called out from the other side of the grassy clearing. "I'll see you on Wednesday. In my _new_ class." Naruto let a loud chuckle exit his mouth, and as he walked out of the shadowy forest. Iruka's keen ears repeated that sound over and over in his brain until he felt like he was going to throw up.

Iruka just shook his head, a slight smile on his scarred face, pondering "What have I done?'' And he truly could not even begin to fathom the impact passing Naruto Uzumaki would have on the rest of the world and its future. And quite frankly…

He couldn't wait to find out.


End file.
